Former Tottenham striker Vincent Janssen has admitted that the move to North London may have come too soon in his career but insisted that he could not turn down the opportunity to move to the Premier League.
The striker joined Tottenham in 2016 for a fee of £18.6 million from AZ Alkmaar and arrived at the club with a big reputation, having just won the Eredivisie golden boot and establishing himself in the Dutch national side (tranfermarkt.com).
However, the striker never really managed to make any sort of impact during his time at White Hart Lane despite being handed numerous opportunities.
After also failing to make the grade during a loan spell with Fenerbahce, Spurs sold Janssen to Mexican side Monterrey in the summer of 2019, where he has managed to rebuild his career.
The Dutch international admitted in hindsight that he may not have been ready to make the step up to Tottenham when he did.
He told Voetbal Zone (as translated by Sport Witness): “Tottenham was standing at the door and to say ‘no’ to that as a 21-year-old is hard.
“In retrospect, the step might have been too big, but staying in the Netherlands wouldn’t have been possible because the top Dutch clubs couldn’t meet the transfer fee.
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“In the end, I played quite a lot in my first season in the Premier League, and of course I should have played more, but I went from Almere City to Tottenham in eleven months.
“There I was alone on the pitch among all those big names. For the first time, I had to deal with setbacks, and those are all things that are quite difficult for a young boy.”
However, the 26-year-old admitted that his experience at Spurs did help him to evolve as a person and taught him to cope with disappointment.
He added: “They have been very important to me and during that time I have learned how to deal with disappointments,” he added.
“It’s hard to put that off when you come home at night. Nowadays I can put that much better in perspective, so it has been a good experience.
“I also just had a great time at Tottenham. I only had to play football, and it was also not a great success at Fenerbahçe, so then you look further to see what suits you and what feels good.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Janssen had a terrific season at AZ Alkmaar before we snapped him up but there is always a big risk involved in buying players straight after their breakthrough year. One can certainly understand why clubs do it as they are attempting to snap up talents before their value skyrockets. However, for every success story like Davinson Sanchez, there is also one like Janssen, who was clearly a one-season wonder.
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